Pope Francis Dead at 88
JASON HOROWITZ, NY Times: "Pope Francis has died, the Vatican announced on Monday, ending a groundbreaking pontificate that sought, however haltingly, to reshape the Roman Catholic Church into a more inclusive institution.
Standing somberly behind a microphone at the Vatican, Cardinal Kevin Farrell announced the pope’s death. “At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father,” he said. An American of Irish origin, Cardinal Farrell becomes the Vatican’s de facto administrator after the death of a pope."
At the Vatican, the rites of transition are underway
NIAH MASIH and VIVIAN HO, Washington Post: "The pope’s death is formally certified by the Vatican’s director of health and hygiene, under the supervision of American Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who serves in the role of the “camerlengo” and facilitates the papal transition. In accordance with protocol, Farrell will have directed the sealing of the pope’s apartments with a red ribbon, wax and a Vatican stamp.
It also falls to the camerlengo to arrange for the destruction of the lead papal seal and the papal ring, which are unique to each pope. That destruction prevents forgeries and symbolically signals that the church has entered a period of “sede vacante,” when the throne of St. Peter is empty."
Mayor Karen Bass weighs deep cuts, including layoffs, as L.A.’s challenges mount
DAVID ZAHNISER and JULIA WICK, LA Times: "For Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the list of problems keeps piling up.
She began the year facing a barrage of criticism over the city’s handling of the Palisades fire — her initial absence, her removal of an outspoken fire chief, the unpredictable doings of her recovery czar. But even without that devastating emergency, there are other signs that the city has entered a precarious period."
San Jose Considers Arresting Homeless People Who Refuse Housing
SOUMYA KARLAMANGLA, NY Times: "Not far from the tech campuses that have minted billionaires, residents in Silicon Valley have lost patience with homeless encampments that have sprouted along bike paths and parks in San Jose, Calif.
Mattresses, plastic bags and grocery carts have fallen into ravines and choked creeks whose shaded banks once drew hikers, cyclists and kayakers. San Jose closed an entire city park because hundreds of people posed a safety risk by living there permanently in recreational vehicles."
Special interests poured more than half a billion into California lobbying last year
JEREMIA KIMELMAN, CalMatters: "Lobbying groups spent more than half a billion dollars to influence the state government in 2024, the most ever, according to a CalMatters analysis of data recently filed with the secretary of state. Lobbying by Google, oil companies and utilities during special sessions in the third quarter appeared to drive the sharp spike in spending.
Companies and organizations reported roughly $540 million in lobbying expenses to push their point of view to California officials, including legislators, on hundreds of bills between January and December of last year — and that’s up by more than 10% from $485 million in 2023."
Sweeping NIH cuts jolt UC Davis dementia research team and scientists nationwide
CATHIE ANDERSON, SacBee: "For weeks, no one could tell Dr. Charles DeCarli whether the $53 million grant powering his lab’s ambitious dementia research project would be renewed. “It was horrible,” the neurologist said. “It was really hard to face the potential of losing all of it, the money, everything I’d worked so hard for.”
Then came the Monday morning call in late March. A program officer at UC Davis informed him the National Institutes of Health had sent a termination letter. His funding was gone — five years into a seven-year study tracking brain health in 1,700 diverse participants."
Sensitive documents, including White House floor plans, improperly shared with thousands
HANNAH NATANSON, Washington Post: "
Government officials under both Joe Biden and Donald Trump improperly shared sensitive documents with thousands of federal workers, including potentially classified floor plans of the White House, according to internal records reviewed by The Washington Post.
Career employees at the General Services Administration, which provides administrative and technological support for much of the federal bureaucracy and manages the government’s real estate portfolio, were responsible for the oversharing, which spurred a cybersecurity incident report and investigation last week. The records show that the employees inadvertently shared a Google Drive folder containing the sensitive documents with the entire GSA staff, which totals more than 11,200 people, according to the agency’s online directory.
OPINION: Foster advocates say collapse of CA system is imminent without support
ROBIN EPLEY, SacBee: "Imagine being a child, taken away from your family and home because of a terrible — often deeply abusive — situation. You’re placed with a new family who, despite all their best intentions, have no idea how to raise a small, angry, sad child who has already racked up years of trauma in such a short life so far.
Most foster families can’t do it alone. And that’s why, for the hardest cases and the most needful of foster children, there exist foster family agencies."
Gavin Newsom grants clemency to 25, including Yuba County shooting convict
ISHANI DESAI, SacBee: "Gov. Gavin Newsom granted 16 pardons and nine commutations of sentences on Friday, including a Yuba County man convicted of attempted murder.
Californians bestowed with clemency include individuals convicted of murder to those who racked up drug charges. Newsom also posthumously pardoned a Sonoma County veteran who served in the Vietnam War, but was sentenced to a three years of probation after selling a controlled substance."
San Francisco Democrats want the state party to adopt an age limit for politicians
JOE GAROFOLI, Chronicle: "The newly moderate-leaning San Francisco Democratic Party is trying to spread its centrist ethos statewide, including by pushing a new resolution urging the California Democratic Party to consider a mandatory retirement age for state and local officials.
As the nation’s largest state Democratic Party, the state body’s endorsement of the measure would be influential at a time of growing dissatisfaction with party leaders. Last week, a left-leaning, youth-led group called Leaders We Deserve announced it would spend $20 million in the midterm elections supporting younger progressive challengers to incumbent Democrats representing safe blue districts. (David Hogg, the group’s leader, however, said it would not be funding a challenge to 85-year-old Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.) Pelosi, who is a voting member of the local Democratic Party, declined to comment on the local resolution."
Goodwill to close 11 Bay Area locations and lay off staff after major merger
AIDIN VAZIRI, Chronicle: "Goodwill San Francisco Bay will close its regional headquarters and 11 stores and donation centers across the Bay Area as part of a sweeping consolidation effort after its merger with an Arizona-based chapter, the nonprofit confirmed last week.
“Recently, Goodwill of the San Francisco Bay made some difficult but necessary changes to our existing footprint,” the organization said in a statement. “While these decisions are never easy, they were made to support Goodwill’s future growth plans in the region.”
California halts medical parole, sends several critically ill patients back to prison
DON THOMPSON, Chronicle: " California has halted a court-ordered medical parole program, opting instead to send its most incapacitated prisoners back to state lockups or release them early.
The unilateral termination is drawing protests from attorneys representing prisoners and the author of the state’s medical parole legislation, who say it unnecessarily puts this vulnerable population at risk. The move is the latest wrinkle in a long-running drive to free those deemed so ill that they are no longer a danger to society."\
Hegseth team gets new jolt with more allegations involving Signal app
DAN LAMOTHE, Washignton Post: "Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his embattled, shrinking coterie of senior advisers faced new allegations of malfeasance on Sunday, with a report alleging that Hegseth shared sensitive, advance information about a bombing campaign in Yemen with a group that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer.
The operational details were transmitted March 15 through Signal, marking at least the second usage of the commercial messaging application to share sensitive information about forthcoming airstrikes, the New York Times reported.
OPINION: Why 340B matters to Californians and their health
IFEOMA UDOH, Capitol Weekly: "When used as intended, the federal 340B program can combat deep systemic inequities and improve health outcomes for marginalized communities; however, it is being exploited by bad actors and Californians aren’t benefiting.
Originally passed into federal law in 1992 to help safety net clinics and nonprofit hospitals keep their doors open by purchasing prescription medications at heavily discounted rates, the 340B program has ballooned into a cash cow for large corporations, such as for-profit hospitals, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and private health systems, particularly in California. Instead of using 340B savings to better address their patients’ needs (i.e. free or discounted prescriptions, wraparound care, mobile health screenings, etc.), private care systems have exploited the program to pad their bottom lines while still aggressively going after patients for medical debt."
There’s a Feeling We’re Not in Hollywood Anymore
MATT STEVENS and NICOLE SPERLING, NY Times: "It would have been simple to shoot the game show “The Floor” in Los Angeles. The city has many idle studios that could have easily accommodated its large display screen and the midnight-blue tiles that light up beneath contestants.
But Fox flies the show’s host, Rob Lowe, and 100 American contestants thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean to answer trivia questions about dogs, divas and Disney characters at a studio in Dublin. It makes more financial sense than filming in California."
